The Wize Way

Episode 70: Best Practices for Lead Conversion

• Wize Mentoring for Accountants and Bookkeepers • Season 1 • Episode 70

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In this week's episode of The Wize Guys Podcast, get ready for an enlightening journey as we navigate the sea of lead conversion with Jamie, a knowledgeable representative from inside Sky. We delve into the essence of face-to-face communication and trust-building, even in our digitally driven era, besides unpacking the significant role these elements play in converting leads. Jamie shares his extensive experience, and results from different communication methods, and emphasizes the advantages of platforms like Zoom for initial meet-ups.

Ever wondered how to turn technology into your most trusted ally instead of seeing it as a daunting barrier? This episode further explores how tools like Practice Ignition, GoProposal, and Proposify can help streamline your proposals while also maintaining their personalized touch. Jamie also throws light on why pitching yourself is as crucial as pitching your product, considering you're handling an essential part of your client's lives. Gear up for some game-changing insights that could revolutionize your lead conversion process.

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3. Book a 1:1 Wize Discovery Session – Spend 30mins with our Wize CEO, Jamie Johns, a $7M firm owner who is ready to give you his entire business plan to build a firm that can run without you – Find out more here

Jamie Johns:

You've got to master leading yourself. So that's about self-discipline, that's about experience, that's about controlling your feelings. So you've got to lead yourself.

Wize Mentoring:

From Wize Mentoring is The Wize Guys podcast, a show about accounting and bookkeeping practice owners and the many stories, lessons, and tips from their experience of transitioning from a time-pull practice to a business that runs without them. I hope you enjoy and subscribe.

Kristy Fairbairn:

Jamie, let's learn a little bit more about Inside Sky in talking about marketing a little bit further in conjunction with your sales process. What are some best practices from Sky that you would like to share with us on lead conversion, and how have you gone about implementing them?

Jamie Johns:

Yeah, first of all, Kristy, we wrote a sales label. So I think there's a link to that in the Wize Vault and any firm can grab that and really customize that to suit themselves in the sales. One of the most critical things is to realize that the best way to communicate with leads and prospects is face-to-face. So if you can't do face-to-face, make sure you use your phone or the user Zoom, for example, particularly when you're doing that initial contact piece in that process is trying to book the appointment. But then if you can do your presentation face-to-face I say that because over the years of speaking to hundreds of accountants, we're all pushed with technology all the time in apps and, for example, Sky uses, for example, practice ignition I think it's just called ignition these days to do a lot of their proposals. are are other ones like GoProposal and Proposify and there's a whole heap of different apps that you can use to send off your proposals.

Jamie Johns:

But what we try and do is obviously use the technology, but when you're actually presenting your proposal, try and do it face-to-face. And the reason is that you're communicating that rapport and that trust and giving the lead or prospects a really good picture of what your firm's about and who you are and how you deliver your services. Because at the end of the day, they're not necessarily buying your product, they're buying you and we've all got client managers or ourselves dealing with the client. So we're dealing with really a very important aspect of their lives, that's, their wealth and their financial matters and their tax. The biggest tip I would give to people is make sure that you can do your presentations of what your service offering is face to face. I've tested this. I've looked at the number of leads that we've converted. Why we haven't converted over a number of years. Now, even in mentoring people, I've seen other people where I've said look, don't just click the button and send it on email.

Jamie Johns:

Have you had the presentation first you know, and many times they'll come back, you know, not accept it or delay. The biggest tip here is to do your presentations face- to- face and not just total on email and you know someone rings the office. So I had to go to price for this and the more expensive the product or service, the more involved you want to face-to-face at a level.

Kristy Fairbairn:

Just on that, jamie, where you talk about face to face, in this post-ish COVID world that we're living in, face to face doesn't have to be sitting opposite each other in the same room anymore, does it? So we can present remotely as well, using Zoom teams or sorts of opportunity, so that doesn't need to be a barrier.

Jamie Johns:

And that's right. Like and Ed would be the same. But I know at Sky probably at least 40% of our income would be outside Victoria. So some of our largest clients are in Cairns. We're in Ballarat, different clients, yeah, they're in Sydney. So with the technology, face to face doesn't mean like physically, but you've got the technology with Zoom and it's quite interesting on the demographics with that. So it's just the demographics of, say, a population group, the younger people, as I might say. You know in their 20s. They're born with the iPhone, they're very used to it, people are used to technology and then, as you get different generations coming through businesses as well, technology is just the way to go. So utilize that technology, but particularly Zoom. There's a Google conference tool, there's all sorts of conference tools that can use. So yeah, but I would just come back to follow that sales process and that's like a failure. If you're just like sending an email and saying, oh, this is the cost and a way you go, without doing your proper present, you'll minimise your chance to convert that person over.

Kristy Fairbairn:

Yeah, I think there's plenty of ways around that issue now, and even if it's a matter of getting on the phone and then sending the email while you're on the phone, don't allow technology to be a barrier. I'm sure the client or prospective client can use their email phone. Find a way around it and not be paralysed by it.

Jamie Johns:

Yeah, I think I'll probably touch on really quickly. It's just a unique selling proposition, Kristy. So someone rings me and says "Well, I've got 10 bookkeepers to choose from, or I've got 10 accounts to choose from. What makes you different? Another name for it is you guarantee, or yeah. Another word for it I use is the meter changeable is a unique selling proposition, USP.

Jamie Johns:

And if someone says to me, "Well, you know why should I come to Sky Accountants?" You really should know, if you're the client manager, exactly what that is and be able to articulate that really quickly. So our first one is like any client, we want to move to the clouds. You're educating the leader prospect from day one. So the leader prospect thinks wow, geez, these guys, they're different, they're all over it, they're organized. Move them to the cloud, collect information up front, give you a quote or estimate of what it costs, and tell them what the timeframe is. How long will it take to get the job done? I almost no more in automatically, but I just urge everyone watching to have your unique selling proposition documented. We have it up on the wall and particularly with your client managers, train your client managers in that process and after they do it so many times, they'll just, it'll be like habit, Kristy.

Kristy Fairbairn:

Yeah, I think too, in all of those opportunities of conversation, it's building the trust and rapport, isn't it when it talks about deposits in the love bank, that you're making them as soon as you take that first inquiry. So it's your opportunity to create a really great relationship with a future client from the very start.

Jamie Johns:

And users are to help people and not the sassy Jedi says.

Wize Mentoring:

Thanks for tuning in. If you liked this episode, please remember to leave a five-star review For more practical, wise tips on how to build a business that runs without you, head over to wizementoring. com/ podcast to download a free copy of The Accountant's 20- hour workweek playbook. We've included a link in the show notes below. See you in the next episode!